I, Vienne Chafer, could never have imagined what it would feel like to ascend. It burns under my skin, wanting to escape, wanting to dissipate into the morning mist. I planned for this, wrapping thick bandages around my body, dipped in nectar and frozen as to seal me in a frigid tomb.

 This ritual would take its toll, yes. But from it I will arise a more perfect being. One of brilliant light, of absolute truth, of unflinching justice. No longer will the Obscuran contain me. All that’s left is to let the third door open and take a single step into that inky darkness we call perpetuity. I can feel it now, enveloping me. The madness has almost taken hold. Have I absorbed all the enlightenment yet?

In an instant it all goes wrong. A tingling in my foot, reverberating up my leg, down my spine, until I am a harmonic mess. A lesser creature would dissolve under the stress, but I held true. I could still pull through if I could just focus on the keyhole.

Yes, that’s it. Move my finger to the lock. Slide it inside (the lover’s embrace). Turn my finger, my finger is the key. Turn my finger, my finger is the key. Turn my finger-

Blinding pain. The illusion crumbles. What had I done wrong? Why do The Eld spite me so? Was I not a dedicated enough servant to their Glory?

Glory, that’s it. I had forgotten the second word of Glory. Futility. I had attempted a task only for my ego. I wished to draw myself above the stars. Such narcissism. I bit off more than I could chew but cannot spit it out.

In a last-ditch effort to sustain my presence I cast out my conscious, looking for a mind I can inhabit. They must be levelheaded, at peace with existence. It takes but a moment to find a candidate. I reach out to dominate them, but hands drag me deeper into death. The Eld are taking what they are owed. I do not have the time to completely commandeer this mind. Instead, I throw my essence into a simulacra, one of many on a shelf in my lab. I cannot move, but my mind does The Work. And to the mind I give my Glory. The source of my power.

“Remember my name!” I bellow, pressing the Glory into this mind. A young man, sitting silently, alone. What a strange sight in such tumultuous times.

I drive it deep within him, and do not go silently into the night.

~~~

I, Connor Mayfeld, sit on a wooden pike, driven into the ground as part of a Traffic Barrier stopping cards from driving off this dead end and over a cliff. I’m looking out over the scene below. It’s no postcard view, but I’ve always found it calming. I can just barely make out Puget Sound to my right, and downtown Seattle to my left. If I position my head just right, I can even catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier between the skyscrapers. My shoulders can untense here.

It’s fucking funny, actually. That I find a dead-end residential street more peaceful than my own home. I can see it from here: down the hill, near the park. I’m stuck there, living with my parents because my college burned down. Imagine that, one dimwitted arsonist and now I’m a live-with-your-parents-guy. Hey, at least it happened at just the right time. A month more and I would have dropped out.

That was a year ago, but I’ve been keeping busy. I have a job at a local bookstore, this is my lunch break. Unfortunately rent is so damn high in Seattle I can’t afford an apartment, even with a full-time job.

I spend another minute looking at the city, putting my worries aside. I’m good at that, I call it my “secret superpower”. I can make my mind go blank at a moment’s notice. When I’m in my trance, nothing goes on in the world. My senses slowly drop away until I can hear nothing but the static of the-

A name flickers into my thoughts. Vienne Chafer. Whispered wordlessly, like an old memory recalled through Deja vu. Who is Vienne Chafer? I don’t recognize the name. I put it aside, try to slip back into my trance, and-

A sharp crinkle in my abdomen. I double over in pain, grabbing my chest. Am I having a heart attack? No, the feeling goes away, but not before I fall onto my knees.

I stay grounded for a moment, assessing myself. Am I okay? As if to answer, a droning sound fills my ears. It grows in pitch, like feedback on an amp, until I attempt to cover them to dull the noise.

As I do so, I see a flash of blue from below.

From the bottom of the cliff, a wall grows. It’s made of semi-transparent light, like a forcefield. It quickly blocks my overlook, a light blue screen separating me from Seattle. I turn to look behind me and see that the wall wraps around, a bubble miles wide, encircling the neighborhood. I stare at it in awe. Etched into the material is some eclectic pattern, lines overlapping again and again in a weave of neon light. Is it dangerous? It’s too far away to tell. Am I going crazy? I look around and see no one else. I could’ve sworn there was an old man on his porch just a minute ago.

The droning ends as the dome finishes building itself around me. Then, the ground begins to shake. An earthquake? God dammit, is it finally “the big one”?

I look to my feet and remember I’m on the edge of a cliff a second too late. The street cracks beneath my feet and I suddenly have very little to stand on. In an attempt to not let this be my doom, I leap off the concrete…

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And soar ten, fifteen feet into the air. I land roughly thirty paces from where I once stood and break into a running sprint, adrenaline pumping like it never had before. Okay, I truly have fallen off the deep end, but on the other hand, maybe I now have superpowers? I take another test jump and achieve similar results, bounding to the point where I can see the roofs of the buildings lining the street.

My house has been cut off by this forcefield, so I need to get to Crucible Books stat. Sierra, my boss, is still at work. I need to see if she’s okay. Honestly, I need her to see if I’m okay too.

I’m moving fast, very fast. Not inhumanly so, but I was never much of a sprinter. I glance behind me to see how much distance I’ve covered and see outside the ground where there should have been sky… It’s like the bubble I’m in has bent, and I’m looking at the rest of the world sideways. I watch the scenery for a moment to confirm my theory. The bubble is lifting up, and it is not respecting Isaac Newton.

I continue to move as seams in the sidewalk burst open. Whatever is happening, it’s really taking its toll on the infrastructure. I start to leap forward; One jump after the other. I cover more ground this way. I don’t feel any stronger, it’s more like gravity rests a little looser around my shoulders.

I reach the thoroughfare and catch my first glimpse of another person. A woman in red struts down the deteriorating road without a care in the world. Everything about her is red; she wears red pants, red shoes, a red dress shirt, a red sportscoat, hell, even her hair is an unnatural crimson. She twirls around to look at me, her eyes a bloody red. She smiles, and her red eyes become the second strangest thing about her. She smiles, revealing a row of jagged teeth, up and down like a jack-o-lantern’s scream.

She laughs and my heart beats even faster. I turn and run. Crucible Books is only a few blocks away, I can hop inside and close the riot shutters. I look behind myself to see how far away she is: she’s taking her time but headed towards me. I push away thoughts of what she might do if she got ahold of me.

I round a corner onto 29th St. Ahead of me I see a zeppelin in the air. A zeppelin? I look up at it taking off, it has a bronze cabin with some symbol on its side. There seems to be writing but I can’t make it out. Next to it appearing from behind a building is a helicopter, unlike any I’d ever seen. It looks more like DaVinci’s sketch of a proto-copter than what a helicopter actually looks like.

I just barely notice the lady in red in time to slow down. Somehow, she had gotten ahead of me and was waiting in the middle of the road. I do a 180 and barrel back the way I came, but as I look to the intersection, there she is again. She reaches for me, lightning-fast, and grabs me. She twists me around and pulls me in with an iron grip, constricting me against her chest. I can feel her breath on the back of my neck.

“Well well well,” she hisses, her voice soft but mocking, “So rude of you to tuck tail and run at the sight of me, eh pup?”

I gargle out a response, “I didn’t take your expression for ‘let’s have a nice chat’.”

“And you shouldn’t of!” she says, gripping me tighter. I feel her tongue along my neck, trailing up to the edge of my ear. Oh my god, is she going to eat me? I try to think of ways to escape, but the situation is pretty distracting… and kinda hot, although I hate to admit it. I can feel all her curves pressed against me, hidden beneath the monochrome outfit.

As if she had sensed my thoughts, the woman says, “Are you enjoying yourself?” She grabs my junk and squeezes. “Are you enjoying yourself?” She removes her hand and moves her mouth to my earlobe, where she bites into me. It hurts, but the adrenaline breaks most of the shock. Her pointed teeth draw blood, but she removes her mouth after barely a moment. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

Not anymore. As she removes a hand to reach for my leg, I twist and knee her in the abdomen. She recoils in pain. “At least buy me dinner first,” I tell her, making distance but not attempting to flee. I’d already learned that wouldn’t work.

“Funny,” she replies, “You already have!” She jumps at me, reaching out with one hand. I step out of the way and she tumbles to the ground. I take the opportunity that presents itself and go in for another kick, this one to the neck. I hear a crunch and take a step back. Did I break something? Oh god, I’ve never been in a fight before, what am I doing?

In my hesitation, the lady in red grabs onto my foot and sends me spiraling onto the asphalt next to her. She maneuvers herself on top of me and restrains my arms. “Oh no, you aren’t a pup, you’re a wolf,” she tells me, “I didn’t think you had it in you.” She brings her head close to mine, so I have no choice but to stare into her eyes. Only now, close up, can I see that they are not eyes at all, but large rubies floating where her irises should be. I stared in terror. Is this how I die? In a series of increasingly weird events? Where had my strength come from earlier? Could I tap into it once again before I am devoured?

“This has been fun, but we need to hurry up,” she says, “The world’s gone upside down, and that can only mean one thing. The Primix Obscura is dead and there are now fifteen thorns around the sun.” She cackles like it’s an inside joke between the two of us. I look past her, up to the top of the blue dome, and see the city staring back at me. We truly are upside down; The Space Needle points down at us like a Stalactite. Stalagmite? I can never remember the difference.

She reaches for me with deadly intent and my body goes limp. I’ve accepted my fate.

A gunshot rings out. The lady in red snaps her head to one side. “Who the fuck are you?” She spits.

A raspy, masculine voice answers. “Leave this citizen alone. He knows not what he does.”

“And why would I do that?”

Another gunshot rings out.

The woman snarls and gets off me. An instant later she’s gone, disappeared into thin air.

I look to my savior. He’s a tall, lanky fellow with bags under his eyes. He wears a trench coat and one of those big Russian fur hats with the flaps. Except attached to the front of his hat is a dot matrix display, where the word “Revolt” loops in big block letters. He slings a hunting rifle over one shoulder and offers a hand.

I take it. Back on my feet, the man addresses me. “Citizen, you are unharmed?” I nod. “Very well. I assume you do not understand your situation. Come, walk with me. Let me explain.”

“I, uh, have to make sure my boss is okay.”

He looks at me with a concerned expression, “You need not worry about your chains. In this new land all are free.”

I’m starting to get a handle on this guy’s deal. “No no no, she’s just a bookstore manager. She’s my friend.”

He thinks about it, then gives a solemn nod. “Lead the way, I will do what I can.”

I can work with that. I start to head in the direction of Crucible Books. My body settles back into its normal rhythm. Oh god, what is happening? Where is everyone? Who is this guy? Who was that woman? Actually, I hope I never learn the answer to that last question.

“To start, you were attacked by Leshona Ginn,” the man says.

Goddammit.

Well, on the bright side, I’m probably not gonna live with my parents anymore.